


a good life

by anathebookworm



Category: Nancy Drew (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fix-It, Hurt/Comfort, Lucy deserved better, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, and now i'm giving this to them, but they don't talk a lot, i don't even know tbh, ryan deserved better, sorry - Freeform, technically the gang is all here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:28:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23173189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anathebookworm/pseuds/anathebookworm
Summary: “You… you…” he sobbed again. “Oh, Nancy. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should have… should’ve tried harder, should’ve done something…”She shook her head, putting distance between them once again. “None of us knew.”“But we do now,” he insisted.She smiled. “We do now.”“Can I hold you?” he asked, his voice rough and broken and filled with awe. “Please?”Nancy nodded, cracking a bigger—though still tearful—smile. “Yeah, it’s okay.”And so that was what he did. He held his daughter, Lucy’s daughter, for the very first time in his life.AKA the time travel fix-it fic no one asked for.
Relationships: Nancy Drew & Lucy Sable, Nancy Drew & Ryan Hudson, Ryan Hudson/Lucy Sable
Comments: 20
Kudos: 125





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I have lots of shit to do and probably shouldn’t have pushed it all aside for this long, but whatever. This was bothering me, and I wanted to write about Lucy actually having the chance to be happy. So there you have it.

Her tears had dried. At that point, it’d certainly be a surprise if they hadn’t. Her head ached, and so did her heart. She grieved for two mothers, both brutally taken away from her. One ended her own life due to slut-shaming, the other succumbed to cancer. Fantastic.

A small, childish hope sparked in her chest at a sudden thought: _“I hope they’re both waiting for me at the Northeast corner.”_

It was a silly wish—she was fairly certain Lucy was doomed to wander around, her ghost trapped for unknown reasons. Kate, on the other hand… maybe she was in Heaven. Maybe she was doing better than Lucy. It was a good hope to have. In the end, hoping was all she could do. Technically. She could try another ritual to send Lucy’s spirit to somewhere better, and she could check in on her mom and—

“No.”

Nancy turned around, startled to see Dead Lucy—her mom, the woman who had actually birthed her—staring her with an angry expression on her ghostly face. It was the first time she had heard Lucy’s voice, too, and Nancy found herself enthralled by it. Be it for curiosity or because she desperately needed to know more about her biological mom, she wasn’t sure.

“Leave it alone,” Lucy insisted, her stare not wavering for a second. “Move on.”

“It’s kinda hard to move on from the fact that my mother has been haunting me,” Nancy replied sardonically, a little shocked at her boldness and confidence at the moment. “Plus, it doesn’t help that she always pops up looking like a freaking monster.”

Something around Lucy shimmered then, and suddenly Nancy wasn’t staring at Dead Lucy anymore. She was seeing Lucy Sable, dressed in that pink dress, her blond hair looking perfect.

Her surprise lasted only for a second before she pointed an accusatory finger in Lucy’s face, feeling the anger that had fueled her when she demanded the truth from her dad earlier.

“If you could talk and look like a normal person, why in the world did you keep scaring me?” she exclaimed, perhaps more loudly than necessary. “Why didn’t you just tell me the truth? About… us. Me.”

“You wouldn’t have listened,” Lucy said with a shrug. She looked… young. She still had a heavy aura surrounding her, but somehow Nancy found that she looked so fragile as well.

When she considered Lucy’s words, she knew they were truthful. Skeptical, practical Nancy wouldn’t believe a random ghost that appeared and claimed to be her long lost mother. It was too ridiculous to be true. And yet… it was her life.

“You could at least let me help you now,” Nancy said, her anger leaving her voice gradually.

Lucy shook her head. “Leave it alone.”

It wasn’t that she expected hugs or a warm reunion, but she also didn’t expect Lucy to be so… icy. Bitter. Who could blame her, though, when she spent nearly twenty years roaming a town that caused her death and made her their ongoing joke?

Nancy decided she would try her luck. Lucy wouldn’t hurt her—now she was sure of it. Lucy might try to scare her, scream at her and even move and destroy things like a poltergeist, but she wouldn’t harm her daughter. Not the girl Lucy had used her last breaths to ensure would be taken care of, protected.

“I’m not asking your permission,” she told Lucy, feeling so much younger than she actually was by talking back to her mother like that. She could almost pretend it was normal. That she wasn’t speaking to an angry ghost.

Lucy scoffed before disappearing, leaving Nancy a little stunned. Was that… all? It couldn’t be. Lucy would do something to make sure she didn’t dip a toe out of the line. It was obvious.

But then again, she needed a distraction. And making sure her biological mom was somewhere safe and happy would be a very good one.

That is, if Lucy Sable was even capable of being happy at that point.

As if in an afterthought, Lucy appeared again, standing way too close to Nancy for comfort. She couldn’t help but jump back at seeing her mother so close again, apparently still hell-bent on scaring her whenever she could.

“And you,” Lucy started, her glare feeling a lot like the ones she’d get from Kate Drew after doing something bad, “will stay away from Owen Marvin. He isn’t good for you.”

And then she was gone again.

Nancy wanted to scream and bang her head on the nearest wall.

“Are you for real?!” she settled with complaining loudly, though she didn’t expect Lucy to come back or answer. “I didn’t ask for your permission to date anyone either, you know!”

* * *

His head was spinning. Ryan barely had the time to grieve Lucy properly—now that he at least could do that—before Nancy called him again. He was supposed to meet her and her friends at The Claw, and he didn’t like it one bit. Not only because it was raining—and he didn’t fancy being asked to go inside and outside in the rain again—but because it felt… off. Nancy’s voice was rough, and she coughed more than once during their call. If he didn’t know any better, he’d have said she was trying not to cry.

It was understandable that she would be shaken by everything they uncovered—hell, he knew he still was—but it made no sense to ask for his company at that moment.

Still, perhaps it was because of the urgency in her voice, but he agreed to meet Nancy.

And as soon as he knocked at The Claw’s door, Nancy was there, inviting him inside without so many words.

“What’s going on?” he asked her. “What happened?”

“We… found something new about Lucy,” she said. Only then did he notice that the whole crew plus a random guy was there. They offered him waves and nods. Beside them, he saw they had something under a tablecloth, hidden from his view.

He gagged before he could help it.

“Is that…?” he asked, gesturing towards the hidden thing, fairly sure he knew what it was. Judging by the grimaces from all over the room, he was right, too. “How did you…? Jesus!”

“He definitely didn’t help us with that one,” Bess offered with a shrug. George slapped her arm immediately. “Sorry.”

He had no idea what possessed him at the moment, but he inched towards the tablecloth and what it was hiding. It felt awful, and it made something inside him burn with sorrow and rage—it was his family’s fault, his fault, every-fucking-one’s fault that it had happened to her, that his Lucy had been broken, driven to a point of no return.

Up close, Ryan could see it well. The bones. _Her bones._ He didn’t dare to remove the tablecloth though, not ready to shatter the illusion that perhaps it was still Lucy in there, just sleeping. He could at least pretend it wasn’t a pile of bones, but a body. Her body. It certainly felt like it all had happened yesterday, that he had just been told by some cop that Lucy had died. Maybe he could will himself to believe they had found her body, that she would be granted a proper funeral and that he’d be allowed to grieve.

His hand almost unconsciously touched the place he knew her bony hand was, his fingers making contact with her own. Her fingers, the place Tiffany’s prized ring was always supposed to be. Tiffany forgive him for that, but it was true. There would never be anyone for him but Lucy.

“I’m sorry,” Bess tried again, breaking his trance by offering a cautious smile. “It… must be awful. I’ve cried so much about it all since Mr. Drew’s hearing, and I didn’t even know Lucy. I can’t imagine…”

“We all cried for her,” George of all the people offered.

Before he could say anything, though, someone sobbed brokenly. At first, he thought the sound might have come from him—it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise, given how his emotions were all over the place. But it hadn’t. It took him a minute to realize Nancy was the one crying, not him. Bess was by her friend’s side in a second, giving Nancy a big, protective hug.

“It’s okay, I’m okay,” Nancy insisted, gently pushing Bess away. “I think I need to do this on my own.”

“If you’re sure…” Bess said.

Ace grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the kitchen. “Come on, Bess,” he said. “Come on, guys.”

To Ryan’s surprise, everyone but Nancy moved. And soon, he was left with her, staring awkwardly as she rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.

“I guess there’s no easy way of saying it,” she said, though it looked like she was talking to herself. When she turned to look at him in the eye, she added, “You might want to sit.”

He frowned but did as he was told, walking away from Lucy to sit with Nancy by the door.

“Is it about burying Luce?” he asked almost immediately. “I can arrange for it to be done discreetly. Maybe it might make her… her ghost less upset.”

“That would probably be a good idea, actually,” Nancy managed to say. “But there’s something else.”

“I can’t imagine what’s more important than the fact that you kids somehow found her bones, but—”

“Lucy was pregnant.”

For a second, he thought he would laugh. Surely that must be a joke? But when it became obvious it wasn’t, he felt like the ground had just opened and swallowed him. He thought about Nancy’s broken sob from earlier and felt more than heard one of his own leaving his mouth. Lucy was…? And still she… she didn’t… she…

Before his thoughts could consume him, Ryan felt Nancy taking his hand. It was a gesture that startled him, but one he welcomed nonetheless. Anything to keep him from spiraling in front of a bunch of teenagers. And Lucy’s bones.

“Is it… did she… how did you…” he couldn’t formulate the questions he desperately wanted to ask, but Nancy seemed to understand his pleas either way.

“When we… put her bones in the right places, rebuilding her in a way, John Sander, the guy who was just here… he pointed out that her bones showed she went through labor before dying.”

“So it… he… she… survived?” It was like he finally could breathe again. If Lucy’s child—his child, his, his, his—was alive, then he’d find them. He’d move heaven and earth, and he’d find them.

“She did,” Nancy with a nod, removing her hand from his. “Lucy went to Dead Man’s Bluff to kill herself, but before she could… she gave birth. She called… Kate Drew… and asked for help. Kate and Carson, they helped her with the messy aspects of birth, and after Lucy handed the baby to them… she fell. I don’t know if she slipped or if she did it because she wanted to die, but she… left her baby behind before falling.”

“She… a girl,” Ryan said in a whisper. He felt like he could pass out at any second, but he had to keep going. “Where is she now? Does Carson know? Do you know her? Is she okay?”

Once again, Nancy broke down crying. “No, she’s not really okay right now.”

It seemed like his brain might have slowed down considerably these last few hours because once again, it took him a moment to understand what Nancy was saying.

And when he did, he couldn’t help but gasp.

The first thing he managed to say was, “We have the same allergies, don’t we?”

Nancy seemed to find that funny because she laughed before nodding. “Yeah…”

After that, it was like everything happened in slow motion. Or at least that was how it all felt to him. He jumped from his booth, still holding back sobs, and grabbed Nancy by her shoulders before hugging her as tightly as he could. It was… it was the only thing he could think to do.

That was also when he started crying.

Nancy was stiff at first, but she didn’t pull him away. And after a few moments, she hugged him back.

When they pulled away, he couldn’t help but hold her face between his hands, analyzing every little bit of her. She looked so much like Luce, he realized. So much like him, too. He should’ve known, should’ve had realized it sooner…

“You… you…” he sobbed again. “Oh, Nancy. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should have… should’ve tried harder, should’ve done something…”

She shook her head, putting distance between them once again. “None of us knew.”

“But we do now,” he insisted.

She smiled. “We do now.”

“Can I hold you?” he asked, his voice rough and broken and filled with awe. “Please?”

Nancy nodded, cracking a bigger—though still tearful—smile. “Yeah, it’s okay.”

And so that was what he did. He held _his daughter_ , Lucy’s daughter, for the very first time in his life.

* * *

Nancy called him again a couple of days later. It was in the middle of the night, and he had been asleep. He had been dreaming with her, though, allowing his mind to create scenarios where things were happy and he and Lucy raised Nancy together. His brain was so foggy that, for a second, still caught up in his dream, he went to nudge Lucy on the other side of the bed to ask her to pick up the phone.

It felt like his heart was breaking all over again when he remembered he was alone, though some pieces of it glued themselves back together when he saw it was Nancy calling.

“Nancy?” he asked, half afraid to hear more devastating news regarding Lucy and the whole mess they were now part of.

“I think I know what to do,” Nancy said immediately, sounding like she was being moved by caffeine alone. “I was thinking about Lucy, and what you said about making her ghost less upset. I wanted to do something for her, and then I remembered… the only reason we got her bones back was because of the Aglaeca, and she’s still really pissed at me because I didn’t let her kill Owen, but I think we could make a deal with her and do something good for Lucy and—”

“Nancy, stop,” he said, feeling himself growing antsy by her stress. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, you need to slow down. It’s four in the morning.”

“Is it?” she asked, sounding genuinely surprised. “Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up. I’m gonna hang up.”

“Nancy,” he insisted, and she didn’t hang up. “Slow down. What’s going on?”

“I want to help Lucy,” Nancy said, thankfully more slowly this time. “And I thought the Aglaeca was a good option since we could ask for her to do something for Lucy. Or to show us how to help Lucy, at least.”

“The… what? The Aglaeca isn’t real.” Ever since Lucy had died, he had asked for the sea spirit to bring her back. It never listened. He doubted it would listen now.

“Oh, she is,” Nancy said, almost sounding like she wanted to laugh. “We made a deal last week to get Lucy’s bones from the sea. She never heard you because you didn’t know how to make her listen. There’s this whole ritual, and, well, it’s not nice, but it _is_ real.”

This… was getting more messed up by the second. He wanted to go back to sleep because surely even his dreams could make more sense than that.

“So, anyway, I’m going to call the Aglaeca again, but we need six people to do it. Meet me tomorrow by the beach, okay? And bring a knife.”

He wanted to ask more questions, to make Nancy explain what in the world she wanted to do. But before he could, he thought about something else she slipped during her rant.

“You said Owen,” Ryan said. “As in Owen Marvin?”

“Yes…?”

“You will stay away from him for now on because he’s no good,” he instructed, his voice sounding fatherly for the first time. And annoyed. “You are not going to make all the same mistakes Lucy did, alright?”

Nancy groaned. “Out of everything I said, this is what you focus on? I swear, you and Lucy are the same. It’s ridiculous. And just so you know—I’m not asking your permission for anything. I told that to Lucy too, so you can’t go around calling her ghost to gang up on me.”

“Nancy—”

She hung up before he could finish.

She was Lucy’s daughter alright, with a dash of his disdain for listening to anyone.

He went back to sleep after that, and he woke up in the morning still wondering if that conversation was even real.

* * *

She didn’t sleep that night. Well, to be fair, Nancy hadn’t done a lot of sleeping since her life started spiraling right in front of her eyes. But that night, after fuming about Ryan choosing to only pay attention to what she said about Owen, she couldn’t just lay down and sleep. She half expected Lucy to pop up and keep her company, but it never happened either. It made her wonder… if things hadn’t taken a turn for tragic, what would Lucy have been like? Nancy wasn’t sure if she was only bitter about life or if she would naturally be the stern parent. Knowing so little about her mother, she couldn’t do much but wonder.

And wonder she did. For the whole night and morning, she thought about all the possible outcomes of her life if Lucy hadn’t died. She tried to picture herself as anything other than who she was, and couldn’t. Part of her wished she could have had both Kate and Lucy. That part of her also shouted for them both, angry that life had taken her mothers from her so soon. Nancy had two moms, and yet none at the moment. She wanted them here so, so much.

She felt like a zombie as she fixed the seaweed wreath the Aglaeca had made her throw up before, believing it could work as an offer of peace. She felt like a zombie as she texted everyone, asking them to meet her by the beach. She felt like a zombie as she drove to their meeting place.

The only moment she felt more like herself was when she arrived and found Ryan already there, the only one so far. He shifted his weight from foot to foot awkwardly, trying to not stare at her for too long and failing at it.

She took pity on him and decided to greet him with an awkward hug—it seemed to make him happy anyway, and for some reason, that mattered to her.

“Nancy,” he whispered against the side of her head, making her name sound like a prayer. They had become friendly with time, but she still couldn’t help but be surprised at seeing him acting this way. She wondered if perhaps this was a side of Ryan that only her biological mother had seen before.

It didn’t take long until Bess, Ace, and Nick arrived. She looked behind them, eagerly expecting George. But to no avail.

“I’m so sorry,” Bess said. “George wasn’t feeling alright, and we didn’t think another near-death experience would be the greatest idea…”

“But we need six people for the ritual to work,” Nancy pointed out, trying not to get frustrated. She probably didn’t hide it well.

“Nancy,” Ryan said, touching her arm. “There’s already six of us here.”

“What? No—”

Before she could finish, Ryan motioned for her to look behind her shoulders. And that was when she found Lucy—not Dead Lucy, but Lucy Sable and her pink dress—standing near the sea, watching them.

She was speechless for a second—and Lucy seemed to find humor in that if the upward quirking of her lips was anything to go by. After a moment, Nancy’s practical side pointed out, “But the ritual requires blood.”

“That can be arranged,” Lucy replied immediately, making Bess almost jump out of her skin.

“She can talk to us now?” Bess asked, her mouth hanging open after a second. “I didn’t think…”

“Lucy likes surprising us all,” Nancy said, her eyes never leaving her mother’s.

“She always did have a knack for mischief. Didn’t you, Luce?” Ryan asked, almost like he had forgotten anyone but Lucy was there.

She rolled her eyes at him but otherwise said nothing. Lucy just stood there, by the sea, waiting for them all to move. If anyone was uncomfortable or unnerved by her presence, no one showed it. Nancy was grateful, too, even though she wasn’t sure how Lucy would solve the blood thing.

As it turned out, Lucy still managed to offer something to the Aglaeca, and soon Nancy found herself calling the sea spirit yet again.

“I know you’re angry,” she said. “And I promise, you can take me this time if that’s the toll you want. I don’t care. But we need to fix everything. You need to help Luc—my mother. You have to help her,” Nancy found her voice breaking by the end of her sentence. “ _Please_.”

For a moment, nothing happened. And then...

“Nancy, no!” She felt Ryan letting go of her and stepping back in horror. “Nancy!”

Surprised by his urgency, she touched her face. It was bleeding. So that was it. The Aglaeca had accepted.

Lucy screamed, turning back into Dead Lucy in her rage. Nancy wanted to take a step back, but found that she couldn’t.

Soon, she wasn’t even sure anymore of what was happening. She felt herself growing weaker as the Aglaeca drained her of blood, but she still could see the others. Everyone seemed to be screaming, shouting, growing more desperate by the moment.

And then she saw the water turning black. She saw when Ryan’s eyes went wide, and she saw when he was swallowed by the sea.

She tried to call for him, but she had no voice anymore.

The last thing she remembered seeing was Lucy’s ghost growing more distraught as she became unsure of whom to help first.

Nancy wanted to say something to her, or Bess or Nick or Ace. _But she had no voice anymore._

Soon, she felt herself close her eyes as she gave in to the pull of unconsciousness. She only hoped this would work.

* * *

Ryan was screaming. He was crying, too, but he felt like he couldn’t do anything about it.

“Nancy!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. “Stop! Nancy, stop!”

He couldn’t lose her. He had just found her. His daughter. He had had her for so little time, and yet he already saw her as the only treasure he still had in his life. And he was losing her! She was bleeding out, having traded her life for Lucy’s safety. He wanted to beg the sea spirit to stop that, to take him instead because he was sure he would die, anyway. It was all too raw. It was like he had just lost Lucy all over again, and then he got Nancy and he… immediately lost her, too.

No. Not only that, but he played a part in her own suicide. Just like he had done with Lucy’s. It fueled him with even more rage because it was all his fault. He loved them both, and yet it seemed like he was doomed to be alone.

“Nancy…” he whispered a final time, a sob escaping his lips.

It was only then that Ryan noticed he had closed his eyes tightly shut, and that he couldn’t feel the wetness or coldness of the sea. It momentarily pushed his rage and sorrow aside to give way to confusion.

When he opened his eyes, it was to see someone standing way too close to his face. He remembered this guy. It was… Chad Vogel? But that was impossible. His old roommate couldn’t be here.

“Ryan, what the fuck?” Chad asked, sounding freaked out. “What happened?”

Ryan pushed the guy aside, jumping to his feet when he realized he had been lying on a bed. Looking around, he realized… it was his old dorm room. From the school he went when his parents were trying to separate him and Lucy. But that couldn’t be. Could it?

“What the fuck…” Ryan said in a low voice, looking around wildly, fearfully. When his eyes settled on Chad again, he knew what he had to ask. “When are we?”

“What?” Chad asked, looking like Ryan had just grown a second head. “Dude, _what_ have you been smoking?”

“I’m serious, Chad,” Ryan insisted. “What day is it?”

“Uh, the 31st?”

“But the month! And the year. When are we?”

“Okay, this is looking bad, Ryan…”

“Just tell me!”

Finally, Chad loosened his tongue, looking exactly like people did whenever they encountered Lucy’s ghost. “August 31. Uh, 2000.”

Only Lucy wasn’t a ghost yet. Was she? No. He could see the Sun illuminating the windows. It was still morning. Lucy was alright. Lucy was alright!

“Fuck,” he whispered. “You did it, Nancy. You did it!”

Nancy wasn’t dead either. She wasn’t even born yet. But she had given him a gift he could never believe he would be granted: a second chance. A second chance to make things right!

He pushed Chad aside forcefully, bolting towards the door.

Nancy had given him a second chance—and he wasn’t going to let it go to waste. He would do everything right this time. He owned it to Nancy, to his daughter.

For the first time in days, Ryan laughed as he ran. He had to make it back to Horseshoe Bay, Lucy was waiting for him. Lucy and Nancy!

* * *

Lucy wasn’t having a good day at all. The only good part of it was that she had already decided it would be her last bad day. Ever. She had no reason to keep enduring, to keep trying to move on. It wouldn’t happen. She was doomed.

She caressed her belly gently as the tears leaked from her eyes. It was a wonder she still had tears to cry, honestly.

“I’m so sorry, baby,” she told her belly. “Mommy can’t handle this anymore…”

* * *

Ryan did the best he could. He ran, and he got onto a bus, and then he ran some more. By the time he made it to Horseshoe Bay, the night was slowly but surely stealing the daylight. He couldn’t let it happen. He had to reach Lucy. He had to. He wasn’t going to let Nancy’s sacrifice be for nothing.

* * *

The pain was almost unbearable. Lucy wasn’t even sure anymore what hurt the most—her heart or her body. She just knew everything hurt, everywhere was sore. She wanted to die.

But before she could do it, she had to find a safe place for her baby girl. So she did the only thing she could think of: she called Kate Drew.

When the Drews got there, they helped her with the baby. Took her from Lucy’s arms, promising to do everything they could to help her. She waited until they turned around, too enthralled by the baby, before getting up and approaching the bluff. One more step and she would find all the relief she craved. One more step and—

“Lucy don’t!” someone shouted, making her lose her footing for a second. “Lucy!”

Fear of falling grabbed her heart and squeezed it once she saw who had just appeared. It was… Ryan? It couldn’t be, he had no way of knowing she was here. And yet, he did. And he was here. She tried to smile before her feet slipped on some moss. She would fall.

Funny how life worked—a second ago, she would’ve embraced death. Now she wasn’t so sure anymore.

* * *

He saw Nancy first, being cradled by the Drews. The relief he felt at seeing her alive and well was something he had no words to describe. His baby girl was fine. She would live.

But then he saw Lucy, edging towards the bluff. He knew, then, the answer to Nancy’s story. It hadn’t been an accident. Lucy had meant to jump.

But that was before. That wouldn’t happen this time, because he was here now. And he shouted Lucy’s name, hoping it would make things better for her to see him here.

And it did. He saw her smile.

But he also saw how a potential accident was just about to happen, how she was about to slip and fall and—

No. Nancy hadn’t died for nothing.

He was more tired than he had ever been in his life, but he ran once again towards Lucy, reaching a hand to her.

She fell, but he grabbed her arm before she could slip away and be lost in the middle of the sea.

“You came,” she said, her voice trembling and filled with awe and… and love. She was so close to dying, and yet she wanted to focus first on reuniting with him. “Please don’t let me fall, Ryan.”

“I won’t,” he told her, swinging his other arm to take hold of her free hand. He needed to pull her back up, but it was hard. He was tired, strained, and Lucy wasn’t doing so much better. They were almost too fatigued to fight. Almost.

He pulled her up with all of his might, focusing on his dream of sharing a long life with her and watching Nancy growing up properly. When it felt like even that wouldn’t be enough, a miracle happened. Carson appeared by his side, grabbing Lucy as well. Together, they pulled her back up. Together, they saved her.

Once Lucy was safe, she started sobbing and took hold of his neck, embracing him tightly. He returned it just as desperately, breathing in Lucy’s scent. It was everything he had been asking for for the last twenty years, and now… now she was here. He had found her in time. She was okay. He didn’t want to ever let go of the hug, but Lucy did.

“How?” she asked, panting, still too filled with shock and adrenaline. “How did you find us?”

It was then that he looked back towards Nancy, safe in Kate Drew’s arms.

“It was her,” he whispered to Lucy. “Our baby. She helped me get here. Our Nancy.”

“Nancy?” Lucy tried the name, somehow focusing only on that. “Nancy. I hadn’t thought of any names… I wasn’t even sure if I was going to have her… but…”

“She’s precious,” he told Lucy seriously. “Just like you are. You are both the two most important people in my life. Please don’t ever leave again, okay? Don’t ever leave us again. I don’t think I could go on if I lost you now…”

Instead of answering, Lucy took his face between her hands and kissed him.

And he was home. Finally, he was home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nancy grows up. Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> weeell, this quarantined bitch here is now trash for lucy/ryan (we need a name for this ship asap) so here, have 4k words of them having a pretty regular life

When Nancy was six, he asked Lucy to marry him. Nancy, of course, stood between them with her hands on her hips, demanding that her opinion on the matter should be asked as well.

He was about to drop on one knee in front of Nancy, ready to ask her if she allowed him to marry her mommy. Lucy beat him to it, though, swiftly picking Nancy up and setting their baby against her hips.

“What do you think, Nancy baby?” Luce asked, looking serious as she addressed their daughter. “Should Mommy marry Daddy?”

Nancy frowned, looking just as serious and deep in thought. “I think Mommy should,” she declared after a moment, opening a big smile. Her front teeth were missing, and it made the scene even more adorable.

When Luce turned to look at him again, she was close to laughing.

“I think you have your answer now,” she told him.

And Ryan couldn’t help but start laughing himself, hugging his girls tightly.

* * *

When Nancy was seven, she solved her very first mystery in their new timeline. Someone had been tinkering with the wedding preparations, Ryan was sure. It made no sense that everything he wanted would end up in a different place than it originally was. The cake, his suit, the flowers, even the rings! Nancy solved the case in a few hours, though: Lucy was messing with him, her mood light, her smiles filled with mischief.

“I told you there was no poltergeist, Daddy,” Nancy said, looking up at him with way too much amusement for his liking. That would definitely require some tickling sessions as punishment.

“A poltergeist?” Lucy asked, looking very much amused as well. “I’m offended, Ryan.”

He cringed at that—the memories of another timeline too painful and raw for him to ignore. No matter how much time passed, part of him always feared that this life wasn’t real. That it was one of his dreams.

Lucy—his sweet, amazing, loving fiancée—noticed of how his mood changed immediately. She stopped laughing, her face growing serious as she ushered Nancy away before giving him a hug.

“I’m sorry,” she told him, though the confusion laced in her tone made it clear she wasn’t sure what had set him off in the first place. “It was just a joke, I didn’t think—”

“Stop,” he told her, giving her a kiss that guaranteed she would stop talking. “I like it when you laugh and play pranks. I like it when you’re happy, Luce.”

“But then why—?”

Ryan shook his head. “I just had some bad thoughts. I’m sorry. Today is supposed to be happy.”

This time, she was the one to shut him up with a kiss.

“And it will be,” she promised between small kisses. “The happiest day of our lives.”

He didn’t dare saying anything about it—Lucy was always right, anyway. He believed her.

(And she _was_ right. It was the best day of his life. He wore the name _Ryan Sable_ as a shield, and he was proud of it.)

* * *

When Nancy was ten, she accidentally caught him and Lucy in a compromising situation. He had always tried to be careful with this sort of thing, not ready for when Nancy started trying to solve _that_ mystery yet.

Unfortunately for him, she was hell-bent on understanding everything about it.

Fortunately for him, Lucy was the one to handle answering questions he never wanted to consider popping up in Nancy’s mind.

“I don’t think I can look our daughter in the eye ever again,” Ryan told Lucy.

She spent a whole week poking fun at him.

* * *

A few weeks before Nancy was twelve, Carson got a call that made them all nervous. While Ryan, Lucy, and Nancy had no reason to keep in contact with anyone from the Hudson family, Carson had still been their favorite lawyer back in the day. And Celia reached out to him, stating that she needed help with something important.

For a whole week, Ryan felt sick. Both he and Lucy hadn’t had a reason to look over their shoulders or say no to Nancy’s requests to hang out with her friends for years. Now, though, they couldn’t help it. At least, not until Carson got back and said what Celia wanted.

“You don’t think… that they could be looking for us, do you?” Lucy asked for the umpteenth time.

He could only shrug hopelessly. “I never thought I mattered that much to them, to be honest. It always felt like all I had to do was to be the perfect heir to carry on their family name, but I… well, kind of disgraced that name after everything. I don’t know what they could want from us now.”

“But what if they regret it?” Lucy suddenly asked after a few moments of silence. “What if, I don’t know, they decided Nancy could be their perfect heir instead of you?”

He opened his mouth to say that it was impossible, that after so long it wouldn’t make sense for them to want Nancy. Not after they had tried to make sure she wouldn’t even be born.

But Ryan couldn’t be sure of that. His parents were both wild cards, changing their minds according to what they believed would grant them the most benefits. He had no idea what their lives had been like for the past decade, so how could he tell Lucy that he was sure they didn’t want to take Nancy from them? How could he assure his wife, calm her down, when he was freaking out about the possibilities?

He sighed and said, “I don’t know, Luce.”

She hugged his middle, squeezing him almost painfully. He never wanted Lucy to let go, too afraid of what the future might hold for them. If it turned that everything the other version of Nancy had done was for nothing… if his parents took her away… he had no idea what would happen to him and Lucy. Not only that, but considering that Nancy was growing up so quickly and how smart she was, it wouldn’t take long until she figured out the past misdeeds of the Hudsons. He only hoped this Nancy never had to find out what they had tried to do to her mother.

“I’m scared,” Lucy told him, her voice muffled by his shirt. “I don’t want for that nightmare to start again…”

He wanted to tell her that the nightmare could get a lot worse if what happened in their original timeline was anything to go by. But he couldn’t. Not only because she would probably think he was losing his mind due to stress, but because there was no way he’d ever let Lucy know about what happened to her other version before. It was already too bad that he had been burdened with these memories; he had no wish to share this pain with Lucy. Not when she had already suffered enough to last for both timelines.

“I promise to never let them get close to you again,” Ryan told her, his voice filled with confidence. “They won’t hurt you or Nancy while I’m here.”

“I don’t want them to hurt you, either, you know,” Lucy said.

That was a promise he couldn’t make. He had seen both Lucy and Nancy die before when it should’ve been him in their place. It would never happen again.

So he only squeezed Lucy tighter.

* * *

Carson returned with news the day after Nancy turned twelve.

She pestered him with stories about her birthday, and with questions about why he wasn’t present at her small party. She saved a huge piece of her cake for him.

Nancy had wanted to hang around them for longer, but Ryan sent her away. She pouted and got promises from both him and Lucy that they would do something fun later to make up for it.

When he sat with Lucy and Carson, he was growing even more stressed than he had been the past week.

“So?” Ryan asked. “What happened? What did they want?”

For a moment, Carson looked away, averting his eyes. He looked grave. It made Ryan’s heart hammer more quickly in his chest. Finally, Carson revealed, “Everett killed himself last month.”

All Ryan could do was blink. And then frown. This… wasn’t what he had expected at all, and he found that he didn’t know how to react to such news.

Lucy grabbed his hand almost immediately, squeezing it to offer some comfort. Funny, that. She felt sympathy for a man who got her killed in another timeline. Who had torn Nancy away from them.

“That’s awful,” Lucy said. “I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head. “I’m not. He deserved what he got.”

“Ryan—”

“There’s really no reason to feel sorry for him, Luce,” he said, cutting her off.

She pursed her lips, clearly not happy with how he was dealing with the news, but otherwise said nothing. If only she knew everything Ryan had seen before… 

“Celia wanted help to keep the whole fortune, but your father had different plans,” Carson suddenly continued, looking at Ryan with as much sympathy as Lucy had. “He left a letter for you.”

“Burn it,” Ryan said immediately, feeling nothing but disgust. “I don’t want anything that comes from him. Or from Celia.”

“Ryan!” Lucy admonished again, sounding like she usually did when trying to get Nancy to listen to reason. He wasn’t Nancy, though. And perhaps all these people surrounding him had reasons to feel sorry for Everett Hudson, but he didn’t. He didn’t.

Before Lucy or Carson could stop him, he got up from his place on the couch and marched upstairs. He sat alone in their small study, staring at the walls and feeling lost in conflicting memories until Nancy found him.

“Everything okay?” she asked, though he was sure she already knew the answer.

“Yes, baby,” he told her anyway. “But it’d be better if you could sit here for a while.”

Nancy did as she was told, though she playfully slapped his arm.

“I’m not a baby anymore, you know,” she said. “I haven’t been for a long time.”

He wrapped one arm around her shoulders, still seeing that little baby Kate Drew had held at Dead Man’s Bluff when Lucy tried to kill herself. He shuddered at the memory.

“You’ll always be my baby,” he insisted, and Nancy snorted in amusement. “I don’t care how old you get.”

“Yeah, I know,” Nancy said, snuggling against him. “I think that’s okay, though. You’ll always be my daddy, too.”

If he started crying after hearing that, well, no one had to know.

At least he knew he had done something right this time, that he hadn’t raised Nancy the same way his father raised him.

Lucy found them later in the afternoon, and instead of arguing with him, she joined them in their little odd, uncomfortable hug.

* * *

When Nancy was fourteen, she brought a boy home for the first time.

Ryan felt like he would either pass out or start yelling at that stupid kid until he got as far away from Nancy as possible. Technically, he could have done both things. It was a good plan, anyway. If he passed out immediately, then Nancy wouldn’t get angry. It was a _great_ plan. But now it was too late, and Nancy and the boy had already left.

“Please stop making that face,” Lucy suddenly said, stifling a laugh and grabbing his hand.

“That’s my regular face. You have been stuck with that face for fifteen years now and I don’t think I’ve heard you complaining.”

“That’s because you never looked like you wanted to kill someone and die at the same time,” she insisted, this time doing a poorer job of hiding her amusement. Surely something had to be wrong with Luce. Why would she be okay with this? It was their baby! Bringing a boy home!

“Nancy is too young,” he deadpanned.

“We started dating when we were sixteen. You remember that, right?”

He felt like his eyes would bulge out at any moment now. “And we got pregnant a year after that!” he stopped, breathing through his nose. “You don’t think…?”

Lucy shook with laughter, finding amusement where there was none. He was scandalized with his wife.

She touched his cheeks lightly, giving him a kiss that made Ryan’s shock diminish a little.

“No, honey, I don’t think Nancy will make us grandparents this soon,” she promised. “I’ve spoken to her about it, and she knows how to be more careful than we were.”

“You have… with Nancy… Lucy!”

He hadn’t been rendered this speechless for years.

“Come on, you know it’s important that she knows about protection,” Lucy said, rolling her eyes. “If it makes you feel any better, she looked exactly like you do now when I spoke to her.”

Seeing his stunned face, Lucy kissed him once more. Much more thoroughly this time, too.

“The good news,” she said between small kisses, “is that we have the house all to ourselves while Nancy is out for that ice cream.”

That was certainly good news.

He was still disturbed and disgusted and in need of having a severe conversation with Nancy, but it could wait. Now he could enjoy his time with Lucy more properly than they usually could when Nancy was around.

* * *

Roughly two or three hours after that, Ryan had decided: he wanted to die. Definitely.

Nancy got home much earlier than they had expected and, yet again, caught him and Luce. She was way too old this time for them to pretend it was nothing. Thanks to Lucy too, she definitely knew what was going on. Damn him for the time he decided Nancy was old and smart enough to have her own keys.

“No, my eyes!” Nancy yelped, covering her eyes immediately and turning away. “What the heck! Please have more respect for this couch, oh my gosh! I can’t unsee this now!”

She ran upstairs as quickly as she could, and he heard her slamming a door shut while she continued to yell about her eyes and how she “would never unsee any of that, thank you so much for ruining my life forever.”

Ryan rolled away from Lucy, mortified beyond words. Twice! This had happened twice now!

Just like it always happened, though, Lucy giggled. She was the only one who could find humor in these awful situations.

“Your… face,” she managed between fits of laughter. “You should see your face right now! I don’t think you’ve ever been this red before, Ryan.”

He threw a pillow at her. “That’s not funny!”

“Of course it is,” she said, a huge smile on her lips. “Nancy knew she came from somewhere, honey.”

He threw another pillow at her, though Luce caught it this time. She swiftly got closer to him again and was about to give him a kiss when they heard, “For the love of God, put some clothes on!” coming from upstairs.

* * *

When Nancy was fifteen, something Ryan had been dreading for months happened: they got the news that Kate Drew had cancer. It was bad, and she didn’t have much time now.

He was unsure who suffered the most when they were told: Nancy or Lucy. Both had a connection to Kate that ran deeper than most other relationships his girls had. And while he was the only one who knew what to expect and had been preparing emotionally for it, he couldn’t deny it was like a punch in the gut. Kate was one of the most extraordinary people he had ever met, and she was more of a mother to both him and Luce than their biological parents had ever been.

They spent the whole day with Kate, doing everything they could to cheer her up and keep her busy. When they got home, though, the three of them allowed their masks to fall. They huddled together on their couch, hugging each other and crying.

“That’s not fair,” Nancy said between her tears. “I don’t… I don’t want Aunt Kate to go…”

“We don’t want that either, baby,” Ryan told her, leaning his head against hers. “But sometimes life just isn’t fair.”

“You know, Nancy, we wouldn’t be here together if it weren’t for Aunt Kate,” Lucy whispered. “She helped us when no one else would. And that’s something that will guarantee she won’t ever leave us. We love her, and she loves us. It means she’ll always be around for us. No matter what.”

Nancy let out a broken sob before hugging her mother tightly, burying her face between Luce’s blond locks.

Ryan had to look away then, too overwhelmed by Lucy’s words for a moment. Was that… was that why she haunted Nancy in their other life? To guarantee their daughter wouldn’t be alone? He felt warm tears cascading down his cheeks, wetting his shirt. Nancy shouldn’t have to go through that again. Everything was supposed to be perfect for her. She was supposed to keep them all around her forever, just like she deserved.

“Mom… Mommy…” Nancy interrupted his thoughts, and he turned in time to see her staring right at Luce. She hadn’t called Luce “mommy” in so long now… “If something happens to you… or Daddy… what will I do? How will I find you?”

He closed his eyes at that, a lump in his throat. He couldn’t handle this. It was too painful. It would be painful without his other memories, but… now… it was just too much.

“We won’t go anywhere, darling,” Luce assured Nancy, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “You will always have us. But if something happens, we will wait for you in Heaven. Okay? Once you get there, you can ask for directions to the Northeast corner. That’s where we’ll be.”

“Okay, Mom…”

Nancy cried herself to sleep that night. And, if Ryan was honest, so did he.

* * *

When Nancy was sixteen, Kate passed. It was also the year they decided everything became too painful for them all to bear, and they made the choice to go back to Horseshoe Bay. Enough years had passed, and Lucy insisted people there certainly had found something better to gossip about than their lives. Or, more specifically, their sex lives. Small towns loved that sort of thing, but enough was enough.

“We can’t stay here anymore,” Luce had said. “Everywhere I look… I see Kate. I can’t do this. It hurts too much. And, besides… my mom and my brother are in Horseshoe Bay. You don’t think they’ll be too upset to see me again after so long, do you?”

 _Your brother might get upset enough to try to kill me again_, Ryan almost said. He swallowed the words immediately the second he remembered this hadn’t happened this time. Or, at least, it hadn’t happened yet. It belonged to the other timeline.

“I’m sure meeting Nancy will keep them busy,” he said instead. “Your mom will love her, I’m sure.”

“Josh worries me, though,” Luce insisted. “He was always a bit of a hothead.”

“If he doesn’t want to talk to you, it’ll be his loss,” Ryan assured her, kissed her forehead. “You’re the most wonderful person in this world. Anyone who doesn’t see that is either blind or stupid.”

Lucy cracked a small smile at that. “You are such a charmer,” she said. “Well. At least we know Celia won’t be around, though. That would have been a problem.”

“Thank God she disappeared,” he said. A few months after Everett’s death, Carson told them Celia had disappeared, taking with her the Hudson fortune. Good riddance, Ryan thought.

“I think… there’s a chance things will be okay,” Lucy said.

He kissed her. “I promise you, Lucy Sable, that we’ll get through this. We’ll be okay.”

She hugged him tightly. “I believe you, Ryan.”

* * *

When Nancy was seventeen, she became Sea Queen. It made both him and Lucy cringe, but they did their best to try to be happy for her. Nancy seemed excited about it, grinning the whole time as she spun in their living room with her flowery dress. She fit right in at Horseshoe Bay, too. It was like this was always meant to be. She got a part-time job at The Claw and befriended absolutely everyone that had been part of her life before.

Ryan was happy for her. He was. But being in this town was proving to be harder than he originally thought, and seeing Nancy as Sea Queen was making him sick. He kept thinking about the night of her birth, and he knew it was plaguing Lucy’s thoughts as well.

“Come on, Dad! Dance with me,” Nancy pleaded, giving Ryan a hug as she tried to get him to sway around their living room with her. “Please?”

He couldn’t deny that to her.

He smiled and nodded. “Of course, baby.”

“I’m not a baby anymore,” she complained playfully as she finally got him to dance.

It made his smile widen a bit, remembering an old and precious memory. “You’ll always be my baby,” he said.

“No matter how old I get?”

“Yes, baby.”

She laughed openly this time, shining with light and happiness for the first time since Kate’s death. Ryan certainly didn’t want to be the one to ruin this for her.

They danced until he announced he was old and tired and that she should dance with her mother as well.

Nancy, of course, was delighted with the idea and spent almost an hour swirling Luce around, giggling and getting smiles from her mother.

When Nancy exhausted both of them, she went to sleep, giving them kisses and declaring how much she loved them for being there for her.

He collapsed on their couch a second after that, Lucy following close behind him.

“At least someone in this family is happy about the whole Sea Queen thing,” Luce said. He cringed at first, but when he realized she was joking, he smiled at her.

“Yeah. At least we know we’re not cursed,” he said, only half-joking.

* * *

When Nancy was eighteen, she took a gap year. It was at that time, though, that she met Owen Marvin. Bess introduced them and, much to Ryan’s chagrin, the two hit it off right away.

Lucy wasn’t all that happy with it either, but she was better at hiding it. She smiled politely, allowed Owen to give her a kiss on the cheek. The stupid Marvin boy even gave a bouquet to Lucy, which earned a huge grin from Nancy.

She truly liked him, Ryan thought. He’d always love seeing his daughter happy, but he didn’t trust Owen one bit. He had no idea why, but he didn’t like the guy. And honestly, why couldn’t Nancy just stick with Ned Nickerson? Nick was a nice guy. He was perfect for Nancy. But no. His daughter had to want the stupid rich boy.

“It will be fine,” Lucy told him, caring for her new flowers after Nancy left with Owen to do God-knows-what. “I don’t know why you’re so nervous about this, Ryan.”

“I don’t like him, Luce,” he said, fighting a pout. “Nancy could do much better than… than…”

“Than a rich boy?” Lucy asked, smiling slightly. “I’m pretty happy with my own, you know.”

He rolled his eyes. “I haven’t been rich for ages. And I haven’t been a boy for much longer than that.”

“You’re still perfect,” she said, making him blush slightly. After she was done making sure the flowers looked good in their new home, she took his hands between hers. “I know that boy is far from what I’d have dreamed for Nancy, being a Marvin and all. But what’s got you so worried?”

How could he explain that to Luce? That seeing Nancy with that boy made him see all the wrong choices Lucy herself had made in their other lives. How people destroyed her in every possible way simply because of whom she loved. He never wanted for that to happen to anyone, let alone Nancy.

“I just…” Ryan sighed. “What if it becomes serious? What if… what if his family doesn’t like her?”

Lucy nodded, looking down. “I can understand that. But I don’t have the answers. I can only hope that if something happens, he’ll be there for her.”

He sighed yet again, praying to whoever would listen that it didn’t come that.

“You know it almost didn’t work out for us,” he said sadly. “It was…”

“It was Nancy,” Luce finished for him. “You never explained that to me. You just said you knew where I was and what you had to do because of our daughter.”

“It’s a complicated story,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “Sometimes I don’t know if it was even real, or if I hallucinated it all…”

Lucy hugged him. “Well, Nancy apparently was our guardian angel even before she was born. How about we switch the roles now? We can be her guardian angels. Take care of her, no matter what.”

“No matter what,” he agreed.

* * *

When Nancy was nineteen, she left them. She went to a prestigious college, gleeful with how it had all turned out, and Ryan was left with Lucy.

If he was honest, he knew that day would come. Nancy would always be his baby, true, but she was… a grown-up woman now. He wouldn’t be able to keep her home forever. This Nancy was like her doppelgänger in that way. She loved freedom, and she wanted to spread her wings and fly. He knew she’d always come back, but knowing that didn’t make him hurt any less when he waved goodbye to his baby girl.

Luce drove that day.

Luce, sweet, caring, thoughtful Luce, surprised him by driving them to have ice cream at “their place.” Their old place.

It did make him laugh and feel happy again.

Especially when Lucy smeared strawberry ice cream all over his face in public, and he got to kiss her so she’d have some of that ice cream as well.

“You know what I was thinking?” she suddenly asked.

“What?”

“That you have this really sad face of someone with an empty nest,” she said with a smile, though she wasn’t mocking him at all. “We could fix that, you know? What if… what if we had another one?”

His mouth hung open for several seconds, not really expecting that.

Then he blurted, “Aren’t we too old for that now?”

Luce responded by smearing even more ice cream all over him.

They ended up getting kicked out.

But that was fine, because they went home just so Luce could prove to him they weren’t too old at all.

* * *

When Nancy was twenty-one, she got a little sister they named Kate.

**Author's Note:**

> Whoa, it's done. Now it's time to go back to writing for work again boo.


End file.
